EP2120194A1 - Améliorations portant sur ou en relation avec l'affectation de places - Google Patents

Améliorations portant sur ou en relation avec l'affectation de places Download PDF

Info

Publication number
EP2120194A1
EP2120194A1 EP08305171A EP08305171A EP2120194A1 EP 2120194 A1 EP2120194 A1 EP 2120194A1 EP 08305171 A EP08305171 A EP 08305171A EP 08305171 A EP08305171 A EP 08305171A EP 2120194 A1 EP2120194 A1 EP 2120194A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
customer
place
business rules
attributes
determining
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP08305171A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Sophie Rabbe
Hugues Gabriel
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Amadeus SAS
Original Assignee
Amadeus SAS
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Amadeus SAS filed Critical Amadeus SAS
Priority to EP08305171A priority Critical patent/EP2120194A1/fr
Priority to US12/157,858 priority patent/US8315892B2/en
Priority to CA2722744A priority patent/CA2722744A1/fr
Priority to PCT/EP2009/054398 priority patent/WO2009138302A1/fr
Priority to AU2009248195A priority patent/AU2009248195C1/en
Publication of EP2120194A1 publication Critical patent/EP2120194A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
    • G06Q10/02—Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
    • G06Q10/10—Office automation; Time management

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for improving the assignment of places, particularly but not exclusively in the travel industry for the assignment of hotel rooms, seats, vehicles etc.
  • PMS property management systems
  • WO93/303444 discloses a reservation system for a hotel having a matrix system which identifies room type, the category of rooms and combinations of both of these attributes. This system provides information of the maximum number of rooms available, the numbers of rooms already occupied, the numbers of rooms currently available etc.
  • a hotel may allocate all its rooms to low value customers who were booked earlier than high-value customers that may book later.
  • many customer characteristics that may be available to the hotelier are not used in the consideration of room allocation or the allocation of other places.
  • An object of the present invention is to alleviate at least some of the problems associated with the prior art systems.
  • a further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for allocation of places which take into account customer characteristics and operator requirements.
  • a method of assigning a place to a customer comprising the steps of: determining a set of business rules associated with the provision of the place to the customer; determining a set of available places, the or each of the set of available places having one or more attributes; determining one or more customer preferences in respect of the one or more attributes; applying the business rules to define a set of allowed combinations of place and customer; determining a score in relation to the set of allowed combinations of place and customer; selecting the highest scoring allowed combination from the set of allowed combination of place and customer; and assigning the place to the customer based on the highest scoring allowed combination.
  • a system for assigning a place to a customer comprising: a business rules module for determining a set of business rules associated with the provision of the place to the customer; the place availability module for determining a set of available places, the or each of the set of available places having one or more attributes; a customer profile module for determining one or more customer preferences in respect of the one or more attributes; a processing module for applying the business rules to define a set of allowed combinations of place and customer, determining a score in relation to the set of allowed combinations of place and customer and selecting the highest scoring allowed combination from the set of allowed combination of place and customer; and an allocation module for assigning the place to the customer based on the highest scoring allowed combination.
  • this invention relates to a place assignment process based on a set of business rules that are defined at least partially by the supplier of the places.
  • the place is a room in a hotel, although it will be appreciated that other places may be assigned by means of this invention.
  • the business rules provide recommendations and priorities for assigning customers to physical rooms based on both the customer characteristics and the room attributes.
  • the following rules provide an example of rules that can be applied to allocate customers to rooms:-
  • the customer data that can be considered for place or room allocation could be based on one more of the following types:-
  • This information could be accessed from a customer profile or from a reservation request.
  • the rate at which the room is sold can also be considered as a room attribute with the highest attribution being given to the rooms with the highest room rates.
  • the property management system 100 includes a property configuration module 102, an allocation module 104 and a reservation module 106.
  • the system also includes a business rules database 108, which stores rules such as suitability and protection.
  • the business rules database may be set up by the hotelier using the property configuration module of the PMS. This can provide recommendations which take into account both customer characteristics and room preferences (if any) and the physical set of rooms in the hotel. This could be used to set aside a floor of rooms in the event of maintenance work within the hotel for example.
  • a database of available rooms 110 is also included.
  • the rooms database contains the room attributes, for example view, capacity, type of bed, floor etc.
  • the database of customer profiles 112 holds the customer profiles and may contain preferences about preferred rooms for each customer.
  • the customer profile databases may contain information relating to value, physical characteristics, history of reservations and comments, room preferences etc. of the customer.
  • a reservation system 114 interacts with the reservations database 116 to enable the reservation process to be carried out.
  • the reservation database holds any reservation made by the PMS or any other external reservation systems (114).
  • Each reservation can have an associated customer profile which may indicate particular preferences in relation to the room attributes for that customer for that reservation.
  • the property configuration module 102 takes information from the business rules database 108 and the available rooms database 110.
  • the room allocation module interacts with the databases relating to business rules 108, rooms allocation 110, customer profiles 112 and reservations 116.
  • the reservation module 106 interacts directly with the reservations database 116 and in turn the reservation system 114.
  • the request from the reservation system may contain room preferences for the customers.
  • the first type of business rules are referred to as user-defined rules.
  • the first of these user-defined rules is referred to as a protection rule.
  • the protection rule enables a user (for example an hotelier) to set aside certain rooms for high-value customers based on the room attributes, floor level etc. For example, a certain percentage of sea view rooms and a certain percentage of ground-floor garden rooms can be set aside for high-value customers in a particular hotel.
  • the business rules serve to identify rooms that can and cannot be assigned in the subsequent processes.
  • the business rules allow assignment in some but not all combinations of room and customer. In other words there are room and customer combinations which are allowed and those which are not by the business rules. Further a priority may be applied to each rule, which can additionally assist in the determination of allowed combinations of room and customer.
  • the room allocation process tries to find a room which matches a target priority value from the allowed combination of room and customer.
  • Figure 2 shows a table illustrating priority, customer type, given percentage, room attributes and floor.
  • High-ranking customers with the customer value in the range of 0 to 100 may be allocated within the 5% of second and third floor sea view rooms and within 5% of first floor garden rooms.
  • customers with a customer value in the range of 100 to 200 may be allocated within the 10% of second and third floor garden view rooms as illustrated.
  • business customers from a particular company (for example Amadeus) may be allocated the 5% of first floor sea view rooms as shown in the table. This enables an hotelier to protect and set aside rooms for high-value customers, since the high priority rules do not allow allocation of these priority rooms to customers below a certain customer value. If, later, there are no high value customers requiring these particular rooms, the rooms may be allocated to someone else at a later date.
  • a second user-defined rule is referred to as the suitability rule.
  • This rule is used to enable a description of preferences for allocating rooms based on customer characteristics and room attributes. Association between the customer preferences and the room attributes can be indicated by a number of different types including, for example, match, do not match, sleep next to, do not sleep next to etc. Each association can be either mandatory or preferred, depending on the particular circumstances of a particular request for a place. If the association is mandatory then the association has to be satisfied, whereas if it is preferred it must be satisfied if possible.
  • Figure 3 shows an example of the table indicating customer type, association, association type and attributes. It can be seen from the table that when customer type indicates that the customer is disabled it is mandatory to match this customer with a room having facilities suitable for a disabled person. Similarly, if the customer type referred to is a tall customer the association "do not match" is preferred with respect to a room having a small bed. Other examples are shown in the table, although it will be appreciated there are many other examples that can be managed in this way by this type of table, which forms part of the allocation algorithm.
  • Another type of business rule is referred to as a set of default rules. Under these default rules, the allocation process would try to ensure that customer preferences taken from their profile, or from the reservation request, are matched as well as possible with the room attributes and facilities. In addition, where groups of customers have joint bookings, where possible the customers should be allocated adjacent rooms or rooms in the same area. It will be appreciated that many other default rules can exist and be applied to the allocation process.
  • Allocation rule logic may be defined by the hotelier or users to determine the priority under which the associations are made. In other words, to ensure that the allocation algorithm considers the rules in a predefined order based on hotelier and/or user preferences.
  • Figure 4 shows an example of the table indicating rule type and priority for that rule type. From this it can be seen that suitability is the most important rule, while multiple room requirements is the least important rule. When the customer is being allocated a specific room, whether this is at the pre-allocation process or at check-in time, the different rules will be taken into account in the given priority order. For different allocations and assignment of places different priorities may apply.
  • step 500 the business rules (as identified above) to apply to the allocation and assignment process are defined and the priority of each with respect to the other is determined.
  • step 502 a determination is made to identify all available rooms. The rooms are discarded if they are already occupied or are restricted by particular business rules. For example, a room may be restricted due to maintenance on a particular floor, or be set aside for high value customers, where the current customer is not a high value customer.
  • the business rules may relate to a mandatory non-matching rule for a suitability rule or the fact that rooms are protected for higher value customers by a protection rule etc. Other business rules may equally well apply at this step.
  • a "matching" score for each room is determined. This is achieved by giving a score to each room (for example a percentage satisfaction with a criteria or preference) for each rule, with the exception of the linking rules. For example, for the protection rule if the room matches the characteristics a score of 100 may be given; if only certain room characteristics match, a score of only 50 may be given; otherwise a score of 0 may be given. Similarly, for the suitability rule a score may be given which is proportional to the number of matching rules. For example, a score of 100 is given if all rules match, 50 if only half of the rules match and 0 if none of the rules match. Customer preferences may be scored in a manner that is proportional to the number of matching preferences.
  • a global score is calculated for a room based on a percentage of satisfaction of each set of rules considered for the combination of room and customer. It will be appreciated that each of the scores and the final score will be based on different characteristics and criteria dependent on the place to be allocated, the business rules and customer preferences utilized, and any other appropriate method of determining suitability.
  • a group linking rule may be applied. This is used in the case of groups of customers requesting several rooms together.
  • step 504 is carried out for each customer in the group, with the custom of the highest value in the group being considered first.
  • the processing step 504 is completed for each guest in the group and a score is given depending on the degree of proximity of each of the rooms. For example a score of 100 may be given for an adjacent room, a score of 75 may be given for a room on the same floor and a score of zero may be given for a room on any other floor. If the group linking rule is applied the final global score is re-computed based on the group linking rule and a new final global score is determined for each room.
  • step 508 the room and customer are matched by selecting the room with the highest global score for all the rooms considered for that customer. In this way the room with the highest possible score is assigned to the customer.
  • step 510 the process stops.
  • the invention may be used to allocate or assign places in different environments, such as theatre seats, hire cars, airplane seats, apartments, other accommodation etc. It will be appreciated that in each different environment the characteristics, criteria and rules analyzed will be different.

Landscapes

  • Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Tourism & Hospitality (AREA)
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
  • Human Resources & Organizations (AREA)
  • Strategic Management (AREA)
  • Operations Research (AREA)
  • Marketing (AREA)
  • Economics (AREA)
  • Quality & Reliability (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Data Mining & Analysis (AREA)
  • Development Economics (AREA)
  • Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
EP08305171A 2008-05-15 2008-05-15 Améliorations portant sur ou en relation avec l'affectation de places Withdrawn EP2120194A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (5)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP08305171A EP2120194A1 (fr) 2008-05-15 2008-05-15 Améliorations portant sur ou en relation avec l'affectation de places
US12/157,858 US8315892B2 (en) 2008-05-15 2008-06-12 Assignments of places
CA2722744A CA2722744A1 (fr) 2008-05-15 2009-04-14 Perfectionnements apportes a l'attribution de places ou s'y rapportant
PCT/EP2009/054398 WO2009138302A1 (fr) 2008-05-15 2009-04-14 Perfectionnements apportés à l'attribution de places ou s'y rapportant
AU2009248195A AU2009248195C1 (en) 2008-05-15 2009-04-14 Improvements in or relating to the assignment of places

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP08305171A EP2120194A1 (fr) 2008-05-15 2008-05-15 Améliorations portant sur ou en relation avec l'affectation de places

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP2120194A1 true EP2120194A1 (fr) 2009-11-18

Family

ID=39855339

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP08305171A Withdrawn EP2120194A1 (fr) 2008-05-15 2008-05-15 Améliorations portant sur ou en relation avec l'affectation de places

Country Status (5)

Country Link
US (1) US8315892B2 (fr)
EP (1) EP2120194A1 (fr)
AU (1) AU2009248195C1 (fr)
CA (1) CA2722744A1 (fr)
WO (1) WO2009138302A1 (fr)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2021080668A1 (fr) * 2019-10-21 2021-04-29 Oracle International Corporation Système d'optimisation d'attribution de chambres basé sur l'intelligence artificielle

Families Citing this family (13)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8346589B1 (en) * 2010-01-27 2013-01-01 Google Inc. Just-in-time conference room scheduling
US9741020B2 (en) 2010-01-27 2017-08-22 Google Inc. Conference room scheduling based on attendee locations
US8346590B2 (en) 2010-01-27 2013-01-01 Google Inc. Automatically schedule and re-schedule meetings through search interface
US20120016698A1 (en) * 2010-02-15 2012-01-19 Agilysys Nv, Llc Systems and methods for allocating inventory
US10505751B2 (en) * 2011-08-25 2019-12-10 Siemens Industry, Inc. Synergistic interface system for a building network
WO2013169765A1 (fr) * 2012-05-07 2013-11-14 Trane International, Inc. Système de commande
JP5643796B2 (ja) * 2012-09-14 2014-12-17 楽天株式会社 情報処理装置、情報処理方法及び情報処理プログラム
US9230235B2 (en) * 2012-11-09 2016-01-05 Accenture Global Services Limited Room inventory management
US10089702B2 (en) 2014-01-17 2018-10-02 Airbnb, Inc. Location based ranking of real world locations
US20150227853A1 (en) * 2014-02-07 2015-08-13 Pierre Boettner Method and apparatus for temporarily assigning access to assets in response to reservation requests
WO2016092687A1 (fr) * 2014-12-12 2016-06-16 株式会社日立製作所 Système de désignation de siège et procédé de désignation de siège
US11188878B2 (en) * 2015-09-22 2021-11-30 International Business Machines Corporation Meeting room reservation system
US11055647B2 (en) * 2018-03-22 2021-07-06 Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc Resource conflict detection and communication

Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1993003444A1 (fr) 1991-08-08 1993-02-18 Hyatt Corporation Procede de gestion d'inventaire pour systemes de reservation

Family Cites Families (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5404291A (en) * 1989-11-20 1995-04-04 Hyatt Corp. Inventory control process for reservation systems
US20060212388A1 (en) * 2000-01-14 2006-09-21 Van Luchene Andrew S Systems and methods for facilitating a transaction by matching seller information and buyer information
US7124096B2 (en) * 2001-09-13 2006-10-17 International Business Machines Corporation Query system for service availability according to customized criteria
US7392228B2 (en) 2002-03-22 2008-06-24 Chris Ternoey Revenue management system
US20040117528A1 (en) 2002-08-13 2004-06-17 Jonathan Beacher System and method for selecting and reserving items
US20040267567A1 (en) 2003-01-24 2004-12-30 Javier Barrera Hospitality management system and methods
US20050154620A1 (en) * 2004-01-08 2005-07-14 Lexyl Travel Technologies, Inc. Online Group Reservation System
US20060149586A1 (en) * 2004-12-30 2006-07-06 Brown Terry M Lodging attribute inventory
US7826965B2 (en) * 2005-06-16 2010-11-02 Yahoo! Inc. Systems and methods for determining a relevance rank for a point of interest
US20080281644A1 (en) * 2007-05-11 2008-11-13 Andrew Payne Seat selection method for event tickets

Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1993003444A1 (fr) 1991-08-08 1993-02-18 Hyatt Corporation Procede de gestion d'inventaire pour systemes de reservation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
"STATEMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NOTICE FROM THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE DATED 1 OCTOBER 2007 CONCERNING BUSINESS METHODS - EPC / ERKLAERUNG GEMAESS DER MITTEILUNG DES EUROPAEISCHEN PATENTAMTS VOM 1.OKTOBER 2007 UEBER GESCHAEFTSMETHODEN - EPU / DECLARATION CONFORMEMENT AU COMMUNIQUE DE L'OFFICE EUROP", JOURNAL OFFICIEL DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETS.OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE.AMTSBLATTT DES EUROPAEISCHEN PATENTAMTS, OEB, MUNCHEN, DE, 1 November 2007 (2007-11-01), pages 592 - 593, XP002456252, ISSN: 0170-9291 *

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2021080668A1 (fr) * 2019-10-21 2021-04-29 Oracle International Corporation Système d'optimisation d'attribution de chambres basé sur l'intelligence artificielle
CN113015985A (zh) * 2019-10-21 2021-06-22 甲骨文国际公司 基于人工智能的房间分配优化系统
US11514374B2 (en) 2019-10-21 2022-11-29 Oracle International Corporation Method, system, and non-transitory computer readable medium for an artificial intelligence based room assignment optimization system

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
US8315892B2 (en) 2012-11-20
US20090287629A1 (en) 2009-11-19
CA2722744A1 (fr) 2009-11-19
AU2009248195A1 (en) 2009-11-19
WO2009138302A1 (fr) 2009-11-19
AU2009248195B2 (en) 2013-09-05
AU2009248195C1 (en) 2014-04-03

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US8315892B2 (en) Assignments of places
AU2003255702B2 (en) Method of allocating seats to customers in a computer reservation system
WO2018097262A1 (fr) Appareil de traitement d'informations, procédé de commande pour appareil de traitement d'informations et programme
US9639812B1 (en) System and method for accommodating disrupted travelers
US20150154713A1 (en) Claim work assignment using weighted workloads
EP1840806A1 (fr) Systèmes et procédé de gestion d'un inventaire de ressources de service
US20110087506A1 (en) Seat allocation to passengers on an aircraft
JP2005532641A5 (fr)
AU2012277131A1 (en) Apparatus and Method for Processing Information of a Search Result
US8661503B2 (en) Flexible document security for procurement agents
CN107004166A (zh) 改进的客户简档分析系统及其方法
KR20210087954A (ko) 이벤트 조직을 위한 방법 및 시스템
US20120016699A1 (en) Systems and methods for inventory management
JP6359687B2 (ja) 座席指定システム、座席指定方法
US20160086102A1 (en) Corporate recognition for travel related services
KR20150117209A (ko) 여행 계획 시스템
KR20160034226A (ko) 여행 관련 서비스를 위한 회사 승인
US20180060763A1 (en) Method and apparatus for generating incomplete solution sets for np hard problems
US20150227854A1 (en) Method and apparatus for temporarily assigning access to assets in response to reservation requests
US20170082439A1 (en) Method and system for determining the lowest cost meeting destination for a group of travelers
US8335788B1 (en) Identification of contiguous spaces
CA2925679C (fr) Selection de resultats de recherche en vue de repondre a une demande de recherche
Abbasi Facility Location Modeling: Decentralization of Saskatoon Homecare Agency
Willoughby et al. Facility location modeling: decentralization of Saskatoon homecare agency

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PUAI Public reference made under article 153(3) epc to a published international application that has entered the european phase

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009012

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: A1

Designated state(s): AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MT NL NO PL PT RO SE SI SK TR

AX Request for extension of the european patent

Extension state: AL BA MK RS

17P Request for examination filed

Effective date: 20100506

AKX Designation fees paid

Designated state(s): AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MT NL NO PL PT RO SE SI SK TR

17Q First examination report despatched

Effective date: 20100716

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: THE APPLICATION HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN

18W Application withdrawn

Effective date: 20121207